Tuesday, January 22, 2013

November, December, and the first part of January have been extremely busy. Although I was able to fire off a Christmas post, the New Year's post never made it. There has been plenty of appraisal related news, but it's been important for me to produce some appraisal related work, and generate some appraisal related income over the past few months. The checks finally started arriving in today's mail, and there is much to talk about.

Back in 2009, when Taylor, Bean & Whitaker bit the dust, their affiliated appraisal management company, Security One Valuation Services, LLC stiffed thousands of appraisers. Later that year, Larry Holzer folded his latest disposable appraisal management company, Global Appraisal Solutions, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid appraisal fees. That did not stop him from creating another AMC to sucker in a new group of appraisers.

In mid 2012 appraisers took it on the chin with the failure of AppraiserlLoft. Who knows how many were left holding the bag in that case.

Appraiser Active is on a quest to improve the profession, but we appraisers are also involved in running a BUSINESS. Please remember when you become part of a "vendor" panel for an AMC, you are extending them credit. Many AMCs are making a big deal of insisting on background checks of appraisers joining their panel. It might be time to do some background checking on the folks you extend credit to.

Just about a month ago I heard from Kim Drago. She was promoting an new site for appraisers, AppraisalAdvisor. The concept sounds interesting. For those of you involved with AMCs, it might be worth a look. We are not in a position to endorse these folks, but their LinkedIN page has a bunch of great advice and New Years' Resolutions.

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About Me

Licensed in Real Estate since 1976, Frank is a second generation REALTOR®, Broker and Appraiser. In addition to his Real Estate Brokers License, he is a State-Certified Residential Appraiser and Appraisal Instructor.

As a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Association of REALTORS and the National Association of REALTORS, he has been involved in FAR and NAR Appraisal and Public Policy related committees since 1992.Frank is past Chairman and a current member of the National Association of REALTORS® Appraisal Committee.

Frank was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board in February, 2000 and served eight years, four as Chairman. During his service as a member of the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board, he represented Florida on the Appraisal Foundation State Regulator Advisory Group and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Appraiser Regulatory Officials.

In addition to providing Expert Witness services in Administrative Hearings, Florida and Federal Courts, Frank is often quoted by local and nationally syndicated real estate columnists and appears as a speaker on appraisal and mortgage related topics.Articles by Frank have been published in the REALTOR® Magazine, the Journal of Property Economics and his blog, Appraiser Active.

As president of Gregoire & Gregoire, Inc., a Residential Real Estate Appraisal firm based in St. Petersburg, Frank is active valuation and consulting for a wide variety of clients.